Turf for Golf Courses - Msu

208 TURF FOR GOLF COURSES
any particular club. Soils and climatic conditions
vary so greatly that there can rarely be full assur-
ance that the results secured in one place apply
generally'. From the standpoint of economy alone,
every golf club should experiment in a small, but
definite, way to learn which methods are satis-
factory and which unsatisfactory under its condi-
tions. Until this is done, its greens committee
will be continuously in doubt because the counsel
it receives will be so diverse. Most of the advice
given in such cases is mere opinion, but of the sort
that nothing but careful experiments can shake.
When different fertilizers are compared, the best
experimental method is to use them in quantities
so that the amount of the element tested is the same
for each plot; or so that the amounts of each of
the three essential elements - nitrogen, phosphorus,
and potash - are the same. For many commercial
fertilizers these proportions are shown in the accom-
panying table, from which one may determine the
amount of each to use where fertilizers are to be com-
pared. Thus ten pounds nitrate of soda, eight
pounds sulfate of ammonia, thirteen pounds tank-
age, and twenty-three pounds cottonseed-meal each
contain equivalent amounts of nitrogen.